Shoukry meets Pakistani counterpart

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan, today, on the sidelines of their participation in the fifteenth session of the Islamic Summit Conference held in Banjul.

Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the meeting focused on the overall distinguished historical relations between the two countries, and the importance of joint work to strengthen those relations through working to develop areas of bilateral cooperation, as the two ministers expressed their aspiration to hold the next round of political consultations between the two countries as soon as possible, in preparation for convening the joint committee headed by the foreign ministers of the two countries. Shoukry also invited his Pakistani counterpart to visit Cairo and expressed his aspiration to visit Islamabad at the soonest opportunity.

Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid said that the Pakistani minister was keen during the meeting to listen to Minister shoukry’s assessment regarding developments in the situation in the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian mediation efforts aimed at resolving the crisis. In this context, shoukry reviewed Egypt’s efforts to push for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and confront the worsening humanitarian catastrophe that the residents of Gaza have suffered from since the outbreak of the war, stressing  Egypt's categorical rejection of any scenarios targeting the forced displacement of the Palestinian people and the military invasion of the Palestinian city of Rafah.